SHORT SHOTS

IN BRIEF, THE LATEST AIRLINE INDUSTRY NEWS.

Alexandra Dahl Augustin - picture: SWC

Swiss WorldCargo appoints new Marketing & Communications Head
Alexandra Dahl-Augustin who has been with Swiss WorldCargo since 2014 has been appointed as the new Senior Manager Head of Marketing and Communications for SWC.
She was previously responsible for Key Account management where she was instrumental in building and expanding SWC’s key account strategy (CargoForwarder Global reported exclusively on 6th
March).
Before joining Swiss WorldCargo in 2014, Mrs Dahl-Augustin held passenger sales positions with American Airlines, Lufthansa and with SWC mother company, Swiss International Air Lines.

Boeing 757F of Cygnus Air

IAG Cargo adds MAD-BSL Pharma Freighter
The demand for the transport of pharma products by air from Swiss manufacturers has prompted IAG Cargo to introduce a weekly B757F on the sector Madrid - Basel. The aircraft which is owned and
operated by Madrid-based Cygnus Air operates Madrid - Basel - Madrid on Sundays and offers the pharma industry around 29 tons of capacity per flight. The shipments are then transferred to IAG
Cargo’s 32 Latin America destinations which are operated out of Madrid. The new service follows on a two-month trial period which according to IAG cargo proved to be very successful.

Kale Logistics in list of top 25 fastest growing companies.
The global IT solutions provider of software and technology solutions for the logistics industry, Kale Logistics, has been listed as one of the 25 fastest growing companies which serve the Indian
logistics system.
This was given them by the Indian CEO magazine.
The recognition is given after a process of evaluating companies based on parameters such as product innovations, market positioning and customer approach.
Kale Logistics has been steadily expanding their IT product portfolio during the past couple of years.

A single freighter might soon complement the carrier’s passenger fleet. Pictured here is an A330 pax - company courtesy

SriLankan Airlines looking at adding a freighter
The Colombo-based national carrier of SriLanka, SriLankan Airlines is said to be looking at wet leasing an own freighter aircraft in order to participate in the e-commerce small parcels market
from China. SriLankan’s head of cargo, Chamara Ranasinghe seems convinced that the carrier should take a slice of the massive e-commerce business coming out of China. To ensure this works, he
wants to wet-lease a freighter, probably an Airbus A330-200, which would fit in alongside the airline’s fleet of A330 passenger aircraft.
SriLankan Airlines Cargo carried just over 240,000 tonnes during 2016 which accounts for between 11% - 12% of the carrier’s total revenue.

Tigers go with Pos Malaysia
Tigers Ltd, headquartered in Hong Kong, is one of the leading companies in the area specializing in e-commerce transportation and supply chain solutions.
The company has decided to team up with Malaysia’s national post operator, Pos Malaysia, to manage their e-commerce facility in Kuala Lumpur.
The agreement entails that Tigers Ltd will install its so-called SmartHub Technology in the Pos Malaysia Cargo Centre in KUL. There is an added bonus for Tigers whereby customers who sell their
products in the Tigers eShop can also have easy access to Pos Malaysia’s 25,000 employees by means of a direct link to the staff website.

Frankfurt Cargo Center - source: Fraport

Fraport cargo figures good in Q1
Germany’s largest airport handler, Fraport, has published good results for the first quarter of this year.
Cargo tonnage handled at Frankfurt in March went up almost ten percent (9.8%) to reach 205,443 tonnes. The year-to-date tonnage (Jan-Mar) throughput reached 535,764 tonnes, an increase of +5.8%
over the first quarter of last year.
Passenger figures for Frankfurt were also positive. The airport just missed the 5 million-passenger mark (4.9 million) for March. This was almost 2% better than last year. More than 13 million
passengers went through the FRA hub between January and March, resulting in an increase of 1.5%.
Fraport has just officially been granted a license by the Greek authorities to take over the running of 13 Greek airport. Press reports state that Fraport has paid a nominal fee of just 1.4
million euros for the transaction to the Greek authorities.

Turkish Cargo starts Oslo operations
The Istanbul-based carrier, Turkish Cargo, part of the Turkish Airlines Group, has launched a twice weekly A330-200 freighter service between Istanbul and Oslo.
The Turkish carrier intends to participate more in the ever-expanding Norwegian export of seafood. Turkish Cargo will use their extensive worldwide cargo network to carry seafood via Istanbul to
various destinations in the Middle and Far East.
The demand for Norwegian seafood, especially fresh salmon, has risen constantly during the past five years. There are said to be plans on the table to erect a new 15,000 sqm seafood handling
facility at Oslo International Airport.
Seafood export by air from Norway is estimated to be over 600 tons per day. It is interesting to note that not more than 30%-35% of this export is by direct air uplift. The bulk is still moved by
truck to various airports within Europe for air transport from there.

Andrés Bianchi heads LATAM Cargo

LATAM Cargo announces new CEO
On April 15, Andrés Bianchi took over the reign at LATAM Cargo from his predecessor Cristián Ureta who will shortly leave the airline. Ureta has been Cargo Chief for the past 11 years.
Bianchi joined the Group in 2001, when he started his career in the Finance department. Afterwards he obtained a Master in Business Administration from the Wharton School of Business,
Pennsylvania, USA, and worked at McKinsey & Co. In 2010, he returned to the airline joining LATAM Cargo in Miami. In addition to his current role, he served as VP Finance and Senior VP
Network.
“We will focus on reinforcing LATAM Cargo’s competitiveness in order to maintain our leadership in Latin America. In Q4 of 2016, the carrier’s sales dropped by 7.7 percent y-o-y with yields going
down by 4.8 percent. “We plan to achieve this by continuing to support our customers closely, improving our product portfolio, and enhancing our productivity,” stated Bianchi. This change is part
of the restructuring process that LATAM Airlines Group and its affiliates are undergoing. It is aimed at building a simpler and more efficient organization that can face complex macro-economic
scenarios and a more competitive environment.

Cargo Fleet News

Air Incheon, based in Seoul, Korea, will take more narrow-body converted B737s. It recently took delivery of an ex- British Airways B737-400 passenger aircraft for conversion to a freighter
(P2F). They also have a further three B737-800 passenger aircraft being converted to freighters by Israel’s Bedeck Aviation.

ASL Airlines Belgium has leased an ex Centurion Air Cargo B747-400ERF from AerCap. The carrier now has seven B747Fs in its fleet.

UPS will take delivery of another B767-300 from Japan Airlines and have it converted by Boeing into a freighter. The carrier operates 59 B767-300Fs which were all built as freighters for UPS
by Boeing. The freighter line for the 767 has ceased and UPS will have to rely on passenger conversions for expanding their 767 freighter fleet.

SF Express, the Chinese freighter operator has taken delivery of the last of five B767-300 P2F converted aircraft which were ordered from Boeing. The aircraft used to fly passengers for
Qantas Airlines.

MNG Airlines of Turkey has just taken delivery of an elderly A300-600F aircraft which used to fly passengers for China Southern and was converted to freighter by MNG’s technical department.